The present invention relates to an information outlet which integrates voice, data, and video information. In particular, the invention relates to cable television delivery systems, customer premise telephone switching systems, and Ethernet local area networks ("LANs") in which voice, data, and video can be integrated.
Generally, CATV has been used primarily for distribution of video to private subscribers, and to the hotel/motel industry. Distribution of video to these subscribers involves the use of a device called a "Set-Top Box", which generally refers to a device which receives a number of analog or digital television channels, and then decodes or descrambles those channels which have been subscribed to, and presents them on a standard television set, typically on VHF channel 3 or 4. A schematic diagram of a typical system is shown in FIG. 1.
Although the Set-Top Box worked adequately for the residential market when it was first introduced, the interactive television market and consumer response to the Internet and to other data applications has virtually every Set-Top Box manufacturer scrambling to capture the residential market with an innovative product. As the volume of Set-Top Boxes sold is so huge, the industrial customer has been virtually ignored.
Bandwidth, connectivity, and functionality are the features required by the industrial customer. There are a number of variations of the needs of industrial customers which can be solved in the same manner. The bandwidth need involves the considerable bandwidth required for the CATV stations combined with the future unknown data rates to the desktop that could include ATM rates. The problem is that in some cases the coaxial wire cabling ("coax") has already been pulled, and in other cases the cost of fiber optic cabling is prohibitive.
Connectivity involves a means by which all of the desktop services can be provided to the industrial consumer via one integrated solution without a number of cumbersome devices that require space and can be the victim of theft. Unfortunately, no such device is currently available to fulfill these needs.
The functionality need involves the ability to control the selection of CATV channels by a variety of means, rather than the traditional infrared ("IR") remote control unit. This need cannot preclude the use of an IR remote control, but merely means that additional, parallel means by which selections can be made via other data connections, should also be provided, as the video selections will not always be conventional programming, but, rather, whatever the consumer decides to connect to the cable head end. The problem, here, is that no currently available devices allow a user access from a network server or from other devices that can be manipulated under program control.